Saskatoon to remove College Drive pedestrian overpass

WATCH: The City of Saskatoon may soon demolish the College Drive pedestrian overpass as part of its bus rapid transit project.

The City of Saskatoon has approved the removal of the College Drive pedestrian overpass.

The crosswalk at Bottomley Avenue will also be removed for better traffic flow, the city said in a news release on Thursday.

The change is part of Link, Saskatoon’s upcoming bus rapid transit program, which the city has spent much of the last decade working to realize.

“City Council has finalized key details of the Link rapid transit route along College Drive with approval to remove the above-street pedestrian overpass along the route as it no longer meets accessibility standards, with a street-level accessible crosswalk taking its place,” the city said.

The city council approved the finalized concept plan in June, with only the question about the pedestrian crosswalk remaining for the July meeting.

According to the city, construction on College Drive is slated to begin in 2026, after approximately 44 station platforms were built this year and six were built last year.

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Link, expected to launch in 2028, aims to revamp the transit network and have more buses moving quickly across major routes.

The city says the dedicated centre-running rapid transit lanes for Link on College Drive and 1st Avenue were approved by council in 2019. Work is ongoing to finalize the concept plan for the 1st Avenue corridor, with public and stakeholder information sessions anticipated this autumn.

To accommodate Link, plenty of construction is being proposed by administration, including medians being replaced with one dedicated bus lane traveling in each direction.

• City council punts College Drive rapid transit decision, again

Traffic would be reduced to two lanes in either direction from Preston Avenue to Clarence Avenue, and a series of Link platform stations would be installed along College Drive.

In May, the city’s transportation committee approved a series of changes to the original plan, which included having buses moving in the same direction as traffic, as opposed to contraflow, and replacing the College Drive pedestrian overpass with a street-level crossing.

-With files from Keenan Sorokan